The present invention relates to a printing unit that is incorporated in an installation type information terminal such as a kiosk terminal or an automatic teller machine (ATM).
There are various kinds of installation type information terminals, such as a kiosk terminal that is installed in a railroad station, airport, a convenience store, or the like, an ATM, a counting and recording terminal that is installed in a parking lot, a gas station, or the like, that print prescribed information on recording paper and issue a resulting sheet, or a ticket reservation and issuance machine for a theater ticket or the like. To print prescribed information such as details of a deal or purchase or ticket reservation information on prescribed paper and issue a resulting sheet, such installation type information terminals incorporate a printing unit that accommodates a roll of recording paper (rolled sheet).
In many cases, such installation type information terminals are installed in a limited business space such as a store. Therefore, they are required to occupy as small an installation area as possible. As a result, printing units that are incorporated in such information terminals are also required to be small and occupy a small installation space. In particular, in convenience stores etc. in which a kiosk terminal is installed, it is important to utilize the floor space effectively. To utilize the floor space effectively, the kiosk terminal is usually installed in front of a wall or a wall face of a goods display stand.
The back side and the right and left sides of the kiosk terminal are also parts of the important floor space, and it is not appropriate to keep these spaces unoccupied as dead spaces for maintenance. In the above circumstances, to perform rolled sheet replacement or maintenance work from the right, left, or back side of the kiosk terminal, it is necessary to move the kiosk terminal or move the goods that are located on the right or left of or behind the kiosk terminal. As a result, even such maintenance work as rolled sheet replacement, which is simple in itself, becomes very complicated. This is not preferable in terms of the store management.
In view of the above, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-11917A proposes a printer unit (printing unit) that facilitates maintenance work by exposing components of a printing device to the front side. In this printing unit, rolled sheet replacement and maintenance work can be performed from the front side of an information terminal by tilting a movable frame that is mounted with almost all components, such as a printing section and a rolled sheet container, toward the front side and exposing almost all internal structures of the printing unit to the front side. The workability is thus improved.
However, in the printing unit disclosed in the above publication, a locking mechanism is provided to prevent an unintended movable frame tilting operation. In addition, the locking mechanism and tilting mechanism are of independent functions. Therefore, to access the inside of the printer unit, it is necessary to effect releasing before a tilting manipulation and then expose the inside of the printing unit by tilting the movable frame. Manipulations by both hands are necessary; that is, a releasing manipulation is performed by one hand and a tilting manipulation is performed by the other hand. It is therefore required to replace the rolled sheet after opening the printer unit with both hands, and the efficiency of rolled sheet replacement work is thus low. Further, the configuration that causes exposure of the inside of the printing unit is not appropriate for daily work such as rolled sheet replacement because the inside of the printer unit is subjected to a risk of being damaged by, for example, a drop of goods. It is also desired to increase the efficiency of setting a recording portion of a rolled sheet in a transport path after mounting the rolled sheet.